Contentions

Sen. Jeff Bingaman says the House health-care bill is going nowhere in the Senate. So how does Nancy Pelosi force the Blue Dogs to vote for it?

Well, the Blue Dogs don’t seem to be rolling over: “U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., a leader of fiscally conservative House Democrats, said Wednesday a House plan to overhaul the U.S. health-care system is losing support and will be stuck in committee without changes. ‘Last time I checked, it takes seven Democrats to stop a bill in the Energy and Commerce Committee,’ Ross told reporters after a House vote. ‘We had seven against it last Friday; we have 10 today.'”

So much for all those dog-and-pony shows and photo-op’s with health-care industry groups. And the “deals” to help seniors get affordable drugs in exchange for a promise not to control drug prices? Never mind. “Big Pharma and others have been played for suckers. We’d say these companies deserve what they get, except that the real victims of government health care will be American patients.”

Obama turns out to be a divider, not a uniter: “A party-line Senate committee vote on legislation to remake the nation’s health care system underscored the absence of political consensus on what would be the biggest changes in social policy in more than 40 years.” Well, maybe that’s because the Democrats are pushing a government take-over of health care. If they tried something less radical and less expensive, they might pick up some GOP votes.

Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain don’t have the votes to yank funding for the F-22. The president threatens to veto if the funds stay in. I suppose he can veto and then we will find out if there are enough votes to override the first veto and save or create 95,000 F-22 jobs.

Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain push back against the Chicago Way threats from the Obama administration to cut off stimulus spending in Arizona.

The NRA doesn’t like Sotomayor’s evasive answers on the Second Amendment.

Pollster.com shows further erosion in the president’s approval (54.4%)/disapproval ( 39.5%). For independents, the margin is 49-41.6%.

And Congressmen are watching: “The first Congressional Democrat (to my knowledge) is now on the record declaring Barack Obama a political liability.Rep, Dan Boren (D-Okla.), one of the most conservative Dems in the House went OFF on President Obama in a scorching interview with the Oklahoma Gazette today — saying the president isn’t only ‘very unpopular’ in his district but should be more centrist. Like Bill Clinton.”

More Obama administration confessions: “Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood defended the stimulus package Wednesday, but acknowledged it’s hard to tell how effective it has been so far. ‘It may be hard to grasp how effective this program is because we don’t really know how much worse off we’d be without it, and because the full effect of the program will not be felt for several more months.'” But in several more months how do we know if it’s working? We still won’t know “how much worse off we’d be without it,” right?